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Public Service of Wallonia
Towards a RIS 3 St
S3 Platform
Background document
Mathieu Quintyn ([email protected]
Florence Hennart ([email protected]
http://Economie.wallonie.be
Public Service of Wallonia – Economic Policy Department
Towards a RIS 3 Strategy for Wallonia
S3 Platform Workshop, Seville, 3 May 2012
Background document
3 May 2012
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Outline
I. Regional Profile
I.a) Historical Background
I.b) Institutional context
I.c) Socio economic context – basis diagnosis
II. Wallonia : innovation and competitiveness policies
III. Specialisation : critical mass and priorities
III.a) Industrial policy : clusters and competitiveness Poles
1) A top-down/bottom-up approach
2) The clustering policy
3) The Competitiveness Poles policy
III.b) The Walloon research strategy (2011-2015)
III.c) Creative Wallonia
IV. Entrepreneurial process of discovery : the case of the
Competitiveness poles
IV.a) Definition of the concept
IV.b) Developing a Walloon industrial Smart Specialisation Strategy : the
university study of Henri Capron
IV.c) Call of proposals : a public-private partnership
V. The external context : national/international
V.a) International dimension through Walloon Competitiveness Poles
V.b) Walloon research strategy (2011-2015)
V.c) International benchmarking and comparison of key indicators
VI. Governance
VII. Measuring the progress
VIII. Summary and next steps
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I. Regional Profile
I.a) Historical background
Wallonia was one of the most prosperous regions in Europe during the first industrial revolution.
Coal mining, steelmaking and their linked spin-off activities in the transport and mechanical industry
were the main industrial activities until the mid of the 20th century. Natural resources, a highly
skilled workforce and the dynamism of our engineers were the basis of this prosperity.
After the decline of the mining industry in the 60s, the crisis in the steel-making sector affected all
the branches of the metal industry. Consequently, Wallonia has to face with high unemployment in
the region.
The process of regenerating the business activity towards more leading sectors is still ongoing but,
since a decade, moved by dynamic economic policies (Marshall Plan, Marshall Plan 2. Green1,
Creative Wallonia2), Wallonia is recording better relative growth performances.
I.b) Institutional context
Wallonia is the predominantly french-speaking southern region of Belgium.
Belgium is a federal State (3 regions, 3 communities) since 1994. The regions are autonomous and
have exclusive competencies : economy, territorial development, research and innovation,
learning, employment, agriculture, public works and transport, environment, external relations,
energy and water,...:
- Legislative power (decrees);
- No subordination links between levels of power;
- Own institutions (Parliament, Government) and own administrations.
I.c) Socio economic context – basis diagnosis
Wallonia has a relatively low level of GDP per capita (2009 - 86% of the EU average/Belgium 118%).
The unemployment rate (11.2%) is higher than the Euro zone (9.9%) but is decreasing since a decade.
The Walloon economy base is largely composed of SMEs. Despite a relatively low level of
entrepreneurship, the Walloon entrepreneurial dynamism has been in progress since 2004, with a
positive net rate of business creation. Furthermore, we have recorded 150 spin-offs set up in the
French-speaking Community (among which 120 are still in operation), that makes 50 % of the Belgian
total number. The main fields of activity of these enterprises are biotechnologies, ICT and business
advisory services. The yearly rate of spin-offs creation is growing.
Moreover, Wallonia is a small open economy with rather good export dynamism and high level of
attractiveness for foreign investors (average growth of 7.7% for the 1996-2009 period compared to
4.9 at the level of the EU-15). The main areas of export of Wallonia are fabricated metal products,
chemicals and mineral products.
This relative good performance can be explained by some of the assets the Region benefits from :
- The central position of Wallonia in northern Europe is one of the most important asset of
the Region. Companies located in Wallonia are in the immediate vicinity of the Capital of
1 http://planmarshall2vert.wallonie.be/sites/default/files/synthese_en+plan+marshall+vert.pdf 2 http://www.creative-wallonia.be/ , http://www.investinwallonia.be/wp-content/uploads/PUBLICATIONS/EXTERNES/creative-wallonia-en.pdf
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Europe and can reach the majority of the European markets directly accessible in a few
hours.
- This geographical advantage is reinforced by the good quality of infrastructures (130 fully
equipped Business Parks and more than 4,000 acres of land, fully equipped, are available)
and the cheap price of land in our Region (the lowest property prices on the market).
- Another important asset of the region is its human resources. The Walloon workforce
presents a high level of labour productivity (the highest in Europe). This can be explained by
the higher education system composed of 9 schools of university level making the level of
education in Wallonia higher than the European average (almost 30% of the Walloon people
have a higher education diploma).
- Finally, it also has to be noticed that we have a higher level of R&D expenditures than the
European average (2,22% as, especially regarding R&D expenditure incurred by the
enterprises. These expenses are concentrated in the chemical sector (mainly in the
pharmaceutical sector) which is a speciality of the Region. With some 11,000 researchers,
Wallonia is positioned above the European average as regards the proportion of the total
staff assigned to R&D in enterprises. Indeed, expenditures on research and development in
Wallonia have registered a significant growth in recent years, driven by the effort made by
the public authorities to achieve the objective of Barcelona.
- Since 2004 (Marshall Plan), Wallonia has been experiencing a significant positive
development of the number of enterprises. Through the 6 Walloon Competitiveness Poles,
Wallonia has relevant results in global high technologies niches markets (mainly in the
pharmaceutical and the aeronautic sectors) while the share of business services has also
significantly increased (75.8% of the regional GDP (2009)).
Despite these assets, Wallonia is still facing challenges in some areas:
- Stimulating growth rate and job creation, process of industrial reconversion to complete.
- Reinforcement of the innovation valorisation capacity: Walloon innovation rate slightly
superior of the EU-27 average but
- Decrease of the technological innovation rate, namely in the manufacturing industry.
- Marketing innovation rate lower than EU 27 average.
- Risk that Walloon R&D performances are dependent on decisions of a limited
number of multinational companies (large innovative companies). The number of
successful high-growth SMEs in Wallonia is too low.
- Deepening the Human Ressources capacity:
- Difficulties to improve further the research environment to attract more high quality
researchers.
- Underutilized “training” aspects.
- Mobilisation of private expenditure in commercialisation of R&DI. The landscape of
research is fragmented, and the transposition of research results is weak (research paradox).
More information:
• http://Economie.wallonie.be, http://economie.wallonie.be/competitiveness/
• http://indicators.plan.be/
• http://www.iweps.be/
• http://www.awex.be
• http://www.investinwallonia.be/
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II. Wallonia : innovation and competitiveness policies
Strategic Orientations
First steps of the reflections about a Walloon regional innovation strategy are to find in structural
funds programming (1994-1999 and 2000-2006) which put basis for a more programmatic approach,
linking R&D policies with regional development and putting emphasis on clustering policies.
Since 1999, the Government of Wallonia has decided to boost the Walloon re-development in a
more integrated way and to develop this strategy in coherence with the European strategic
orientations. So, it developed a global development strategy, called the Contract for the Future of
Wallonia. This strategic document has some important features : it is based on a long-term
perspective, and aims at involving all the Walloon citizens in the development of their Region. It is
also linked with the Lisbon Agenda, and in particular the main objectives related to it:
- Create more enterprises, more competitiveness and more attractiveness, strengthen the
economic base;
- Move up in the added value chain by developing innovation and competencies;
- Networking of actors and development of synergies : Stimulation of relations inter-enterprises,
between enterprises and Universities or research centres and learning centres, stimulation of
knowledge and resources sharing;
- Enhance the attractiveness for foreign investors;
- Targeting of actions and resources on priority sectors, holders of innovation and added value;
- Activation of regional growth factors and development of synergies between policies.
In August 2005, the Government of Wallonia decided to dedicate important budgets (1,6 billion €) to
a Priority Action Plan, also called the “Marshall Plan” (2005-2009), aiming at giving a qualitative jump
to the economy of the Region. This Plan developed structural reforms under 5 priorities :
1. Competitiveness poles policy : development of some key growth sectors on the basis of strong
partnership projects between enterprises, research centres and training centres.
2. Stimulation of the creation of activities : creation of an Economic Stimulation Agency, increase
of the means devoted to financial support to export and international development, specific
employment support measures for SME’s.
3. Reduction of taxes on companies : fiscal reduction measures at the local, provincial and
regional levels.
4. Promotion of research and innovation: development of R&D support measures at different
stages, from fundamental research to applied research, and spin-off creation support, with a
special attention to priority sectors.
5. Improvement of the skills of the workforce : meeting skills shortages in certain sectors,
developing the language skills of our workers and unemployed people...
The final evaluation3 of this Plan put light on some key elements:
• Objectives reached at end 2009 : 11.000 enterprises beneficiaries, 27.000 direct jobs created,
115.000 people trained, 1.250 new researchers;
• Mobilising public and private actors around an integrated development strategy, networking
of players, partnership;
• Development of synergies between economic policy tools, on the ground of shared
objectives;
• Better consideration of the needs of enterprises and enhancing the efficiency of public tools;
3 http://planmarshall2vert.wallonie.be/sites/default/files/rapport-final-plan-marshall-2006-2009.pdf
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• Better understanding and visibility of the Walloon development strategy;
• Development of monitoring and evaluation tools (on the basis of the structural funds
experience on this topics);
• Positive trends in the socio-economic context : entrepreneurial spirit, exports, spin-off
creation, investment dynamism, innovation, job creation,…
• But slow-down following the crisis;
• Conclusion of the evaluation : regional development approach to pursue and to consolidate.
On this basis, in 2009, the orientations of the Marshall Plan were confirmed by the new Walloon
Government in a "2.green" version of the Marshall Plan4 placing greater emphasis on eco-efficiency
and green technologies.
This Marshall Plan 2.Green (2009-2014) aims at pursuing and reinforcing the first Plan, with up-to-
date priorities, taking into account evolutions in the context :
• New challenges and opportunities: climate change and greening of the economy,
globalisation;
• Europe 2020 Strategy;
• Stronger synergies between regional and community (education and learning) priorities;
Its budget for the 2009-2014 period is amounting to 2,75 billion € (additional to regional
« recurring » budget), devoted to 6 priority axis:
1. Human capital, an asset to develop (337 million €):
- Synergies between education, training, employment and economic policies.
- Better involvement of sectors.
- Focus on life-long-learning : competencies validation, professional learning centres.
- Enhance qualifying education and learning : equipment, alternate learning, work
experience, valorisation of technic and scientific carriers,…
- Offering tailor-made training to respond to market needs : skills shortages, green
jobs, competitiveness poles.
- Multilinguism.
- Active insertion on the labour markets, notably for young people.
2. Competitiveness poles and business networks : a success to amplify (388 million €):
- Development of the regional industrial policy, based on networking policies :
clustering policy and competitiveness poles policy.
- Focus on sustainable development opportunities : dedicated calls for projects and
launch of a new pole on green technologies.
- Greater involvement of SMEs.
- Synergies between poles and clusters, with other regions, internationalisation.
3. Strengthening scientific research as an engine for future development (142 millions €)
- Pursue efforts to raise R&D budgets : co-operative applied R&D, excellence
programmes in Universities, Public-Private Partnerships, support to SMEs.
- Definition of a common research strategy for Wallonia and Brussels with a focus on
five themes : sustainable development, quality and length of life, health, renewable
energies, key technology domains).
- Excellence in scientific research and support to human capital in R&D.
- Researchers carriers and support to insertion in international networks.
4 http://planmarshall2vert.wallonie.be/sites/default/files/synthese_en+plan+marshall+vert.pdf
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- Review of regional innovation system, support to networking, and support to
innovation and creativity of enterprises, spin-offs support.
4. A favourable framework for creating businesses and quality jobs (592 million €) :
• SMEs support Plan5 (cf. Small Business Act) : Support to entrepreneurship and
business creation, transmission, second chance,…Support to growth, Financial
instruments and access to finance, Cutting red tape and better regulation.
• Export policy and attraction of foreign direct investors.
• Brownfield redevelopment.
• Equipment of economic activity parks (eco-parks) and multimodal zones.
5. Employment-Environment Alliances : a new strategy for the future (879,6 million €):
• First theme: energy- and environment-performance of buildings.
• Multi-sectorial contract to stimulate demand and supply of good and services, in
concertation with sectors.
• Measures involved: support to R&D, training and education, employment, regulation,
public-private partnerships, support to investment,...
6. Mixing-up employment and social welfare (422 million €).
• Reinforcement of personal services : childcare, elderly people, disabled people, ...
+ 2 transversal dynamics: public governance efficiency and sustainable development in public
action.
With a total budget of 1,6 billion € for the 2005-2009 period and 2,7 billion € for the 2010-2014
period, the 2 Marshall Plans represent a substantial effort of the Region to foster its economic
development.
It has also to be noticed that projects supported by the European funds6 (European Social Fund and
the European Regional Development Fund) are following the strategic orientations of the Marshall
Plan.
Consistent with those strategic orientations, the new industrial policy developed in Wallonia mainly
focused on the development of industrial networking though two complementary and linked
policies: Competitiveness Poles and clustering.
Within this context, the Walloon Government7 is the relevant regional authority responsible for
regional economic development and RD&I policies.
���� Progressive building of an integrated and shared strategy, based on synergies and
networking between actors and policies : industrial and RDI policies, training and
education, employment, infrastructures + integration of the ‘green’ dimension.
5 http://economie.wallonie.be/new/spip.php?article132 6 http://europe.wallonie.be/, 7 http://gouvernement.wallonie.be/
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III. Specialisation : critical mass and priorities
III.a) Industrial policy : clusters and competitiveness poles8
The Walloon industrial policy is mainly developed through clusters and Competitiveness poles
policies, but embedded in a comprehensive strategic framework addressing main competitiveness
challenges : The Marshall Plan.
1) A top-down/bottom-up approach
Competitiveness Poles and clusters must create a strong research and innovation
environment in Wallonia. Cluster/poles initiatives are seen as political tools for
implementing well-developed eco-systems (with a focus on SMEs strategic change and
business environment improvement), for detecting innovative projects and new innovation
methods and for fostering cross-fertilisation among different industries.
8 http://clusters.wallonie.be/federateur/en/index.html
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Within this framework, Key Enabling Technologies (KET) and ICT can help Walloon
Competitiveness and Clusters to develop an industrial cross-sectoral approach and promote
interclustering linkages both at local and international level.
The Competitivenes poles and clusters policies are complementary and facilitate cross-
fertilisation among industrial fields:
2) The clustering policy
Launched in 2001, the objective of this policy is to develop business networks in specific
domains, eventually with research operators, and, doing so, to develop a cooperation
framework and a stronger economic development within the sector.
This policy is developed using a bottom-up approach, on the basis of the following definition:
"The cluster is an organisational approach of the production system set on the initiative of
the companies (with, if need be, the participation of research centres) and characterised by...
• a co-operation framework encompassing related activities,
• the voluntary development between the companies of a complementarity
relationship, vertical or horizontal, profit or non-profit, the promotion of a common
vision of development."
Demands coming from existing Enterprises networks are spontaneous. They are the initiators
and the drivers of their own development (strategy, actions, …). Region is acting as a catalyst.
This policy was developed in 2001 on the basis of a study aiming at developing a Walloon
concept of clustering. The first stage (2001-2006) was experimental, on the basis of pilot
projects. In 2007, on the basis on the evaluation of the pilot phase, a cluster Decree was adopted
setting the concrete modalities of implementing this policy on a long term perspective:
- Selection procedures
- Financing modalities (degressive)
- Triennial assessments of each cluster and the policy itself
- Specific support to international and inter-clusters co-operation.
The financing of the animation structure amounts to a yearly € 160 000 but on a degressive
financial support. A specific support may also be available for international and inter-cluster
cooperation.
3) The Competitiveness Poles policy
Building on the clustering policy experience and EU good practices, this policy was launched
in 2005, in the context of the Marshall Plan. The main objective of this policy is to develop
some key growth sectors on the basis of strong partnerships projects between enterprises,
research centres and training centres (triple helix approach). It aims at implementing
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leading industrial and technological projects within the leading and growth sectors
considered essential for the regional economy.
This policy was in a first step developed using a top-down approach, priority sectors being
identified on a scientific basis through an analysis of regional potentials and development
perspectives. This study used different criteria : economic basis, technologic and scientific
basis, status of re-development process, perspectives (see infra). 5 sectors were identified in
2005 : life sciences, agro-industry, mechanical engineering, transport & logistic, aeronautics
& space. A second study was completed in 2009 to identify potentials in the green area
(Environmental technologies)
The creation of the Competitiveness poles in the identified sectors is based on a more
bottom-up approach : a call for interest is launched by the Government, jointly with a first
call of concrete projects (R&D, investment, training,…). The industrial and scientific
stakeholders are in charge of defining the strategy of Competitiveness Poles (niches markets
and technology fields), development of concrete projects and management of Poles (private
leadership). To be selected, Competitiveness poles were required to be composed of a mix of
different categories of operators (enterprises, training centres and research centres) and to
develop a common and innovative project for their sector with a view to reaching a high level
of competitiveness and international visibility. Only one Pole could be financed in each of the
priority domain. The proposals to constitute a pole and projects submitted are analysed by
an independent jury.
6 Competitiveness Poles were created on this basis:
In the implementing phase of the Competitiveness poles policy, the Government is
launching, on a regular basis, calls for projects on their behalf. The quality assessment of
projects is entrusted to the international jury. On the basis of the opinion of the jury, the
Government labels the relevant projects and allocates the financial means. The areas of
government support are : investment, training, R&D, export and foreign investors attraction,
animation and networking.
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3 OPERATORS CATEGORIES 3 CENTRAL FACTORS
Enterprises
Research units
Training centers
Partnerships
Setting up of joint innovative projects
International visibility
Up to now, 7 calls for projects have been launched by the Government. The 8th
call is open
and will be closed for June 30th
, 2012.
As regards the Walloon funding support, the Competitiveness Poles are essentially supported
for the achievement of projects of investment, R &D and training in the wake of the
competitive positioning strategy they have themselves defined. The animation structure of
the Competitiveness Poles are cofinanced on a public-private, 50-50%, partnership basis.
Twice a year, the support and monitoring Commitee meets to assess the leverage effect of
Public Cluster Funding.
For more coherence with the European strategic orientation (Internationalisation /
Excellence of clusters), each pole recruited a sectoral expert with a view to developing an
international promotion strategy for the Competitiveness Pole. This person must improve
the Pole’ strategy.
Monitoring of the policy:
- Development of a set of monitoring indicators;
- Setting up of an administrative cell for the co-ordination of the policy : database for the
monitoring of the policy, monitoring committees, reporting;
- Recommendations and follow-up of the implementation of the Poles by the Government
and by the independent jury;
- Independent evaluation in 2009;
- Each Pole has its own governing structures (private).
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III.b) The Walloon research strategy (2011-2015)9
The aim of the Walloon research Strategy “Integrated research policy” is to guarantee an interactive
continuum based on a complementary relationship and consistency between the various research
activities – independent research, strategic research and applied research – in line with the market
and societal requirements. This is based on analyses of the strengths and weakness of the Walloon
and French-speaking Community research and innovation system, and the requirements in terms of
resources, instruments, governance and assessment. The outcome of these endeavours is supposed
to be the development of an integrated approach and the roll-out of specific projects. The strategy
seeks to achieve the following eight strategic objectives:
- Complimentarity of the tools;
- Pursue efforts to raise R&D budgets with an ambitious objective: moving closer to R&D
spending equal to 3% of GDP;
- Partnership approaches and capitalising on research;
- Excellence in scientific research and support to human capital in R&D
- Researchers carriers and support to insertion in international networks
- Definition of a common research strategy for Wallonia and Brussels, with five key
themes to address the societal challenges, and markets for the future, in linkage with
Competitiveness Poles strategies:
– sustainable development,
– renewable energies,
– quality and length of life,
– health,
– key technology domains.
- Evaluation of the research undertaken and an anticipatory approach;
- Better relationship between the sciences and society.
The Government rubber-stamped the strategy in late March 2011 to be applied over a five-period,
from 2011 to 2015. The strategic objectives are pursued through concrete action plans, building on
R&D policy tools, and notably the Research Decree of 200810
.
Monitoring and evaluation of the policy:
- The Walloon Scientific Policy Council evaluate every 2 years the Walloon scientific
policy11
;
- Accompagnying committee of the 2008 Decree;
- Bisannual report on regional innovation system by the federal planning Bureau, on the
basis of a scoreboard12
;
- Development of ex post evaluation of R&D projects.
III.c) Creative Wallonia13
The Creative Wallonia Plan is designed to foster the emergence in Wallonia of a wide-spread
innovation culture applicable at several levels: education, companies and SMEs in particular,
9 http://nollet.wallonie.be/sites/default/files/nodes/story/3676-3416-recherchebdweb.pdf 10 http://recherche-technologie.wallonie.be/fr/menu/ressources/dispositions-legislatives/index.html 11 http://www.cesw.be/index.php?page=publications-du-conseil-2&id=1 12 http://indicators.plan.be/index.php 13 http://www.creative-wallonia.be/ , http://www.investinwallonia.be/wp-content/uploads/PUBLICATIONS/EXTERNES/creative-wallonia-en.pdf
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networking and opening up to others, ICT. The plan takes an open approach to innovation, but also
targets particular groups, including students, jobseekers, civil servants, businesses and designers. The
aim is to develop new ways of raising awareness, promoting the spread of technology, creating
innovation ecosystems and stimulating the launch of new products and services. It was adopted in
October 2010, while the concrete measures are progressively set in motion by the Walloon
Government. Those measure covers 3 main axis :
1. The promotion of the society of creativity
2. Developing innovative practices
3. Support for innovative production
The main measures developed so far are :
– Organisation of a Creativity Week ;
– Involvement of university departments in multidisciplinary research and training projects in the
fields of creativity and innovation;
– Creative training for future managers and economic players (ID Campus);
– Adoption of an ICT Master Plan14
(to be implemented in 2012);
– Creation of a trend analysis centre to support Walloon employers;
– Call for coworking projects :shared workspaces offering different services and promoting
knowledge growth);
– Development of “smart work centres”;
– Introduction of a specialised consultancy scheme aimed at supporting an innovation audit of
SMEs, which will be up and running in 2012;
– The “Boost-Up” scheme15
, aimed at self-employed people and SMEs in the creative industries
sector looking to launch innovative prototypes;
– “Wallimage Crossmedia”: this scheme is designed to support innovative digital marketing
campaigns for film productions aimed at attracting audiences through alternative forms of media;
– Introduction of a scheme designed to support the development of innovative technological
products, from prototype to production to launch.
The Plan is monitored by a monitoring committee and via a scoreboard.
IV. Entrepreneurial process of discovery : the case of the
Competitiveness poles
IV.a) Definition of the concept
Walloon Competitiveness Poles and clusters programmes must address a number of challenges :
developing an effective and ambitious industrial strategy (through smart specialisation strategies)
which takes into account grand societal challenges, better leveraging of complementary research and
innovation assets (through creative linkages, cross-fertilisation, KET) and finally moving from
collaborative research projects to a real commercial exploitation of the research results.
Within this context, the Walloon definition for the “entrepreneurial process of discovery“ means
creating spaces for connection and exchange of knowledge for developing niche markets.
14 http://www.creative-wallonia.be/projets/plan-tic.htm?lng=fr 15 http://www.creativewallonia.be/boost-up/
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IV.b) Developing a Walloon industrial Smart Specialisation Strategy: the university study of
Henri Capron
Wallonia is completely convinced that Competitiveness Poles and Clusters provide fertile
environments for companies (in particulary SMEs) to thrive. They play an important role within the
regional smart specialisation strategy. They have to contribute to innovation and industrial growth
of Wallonia.
As described before, Walloon Competitiveness poles were selected:
- On the basis of the study of Professor HENRI CAPRON (2005 - Free University of Brussels),
sectors in which the Region has a high economic innovative potential were identified.36
indicators were gathered in 8 main categories: Economic basis (1) and its evolution (2),
Technological base (3) and its evolution (4), Scientific base (5) and its evolution (6), the state
of the redeployment process (7) and the prospects for the development of the strategic
assets (8). Scientific basis: analysis of regional potentials and development perspectives.
- Moreover, potential projects are analysed by an independant and international Jury of
experts. By this way, the strategy of the poles is continuously evaluated and involves a
specialisation of certain themes of the key sector (niche markets).
From the policy makers’ perspectives, it means that Cluster/Pole initiatives have to be used as a
market intelligence tool to detect trends in business models and to reinforce the regional
competitiveness in front of globalization.
The Walloon industrial strategy also must take into account grand societal challenges. In 2009, the
orientations of the Marshall Plan were confirmed by the new Government of Wallonia in a "2.green"
version placing greater emphasis on eco-efficiency and green technologies. The Sixth Pole in
environmental technologies was created in 2011. It’s an answer to the societal challenges and new
opportunities outlined by the Europe 2020 strategy16
.
IV.c) Call of proposals: a public-private partnerships
The various steps of the selection of the project highlight the Public/Private Partnership:
- The strategy of Competitiveness Poles17
(niches markets and technology fields) is defined by
industrials and scientists which are also responsible of the management of Poles (private
leadership). The government is present in the clusters only through the intermediary of
observers in charge of verifying that the philosophy of the clusters as defined by the
government is implemented.
- Internal calls for projects are launched and selected by an internal jury and the Governance
Council of the Competitiveness Pole.
- checking of the eligibility of the projects by the relevant administrations.
- The quality assessment of projects is entrusted to the international jury.
- On the basis of the opinion of the jury, the government labels the relevant projects and
allocates the financial means.
16 The next call for project launched by the Walloon governement will be dedicated to „green” technologies. It’s open to clusters and poles. 17 Triple helix approach (Business – knowledge – training centres) + Government. All these parties cooperate and establish links to increase overall regional competitiveness. Focusing on the competitive strategic challenges.
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V. The external context : national/international
The different plans foresee important supports to open up the economy and the RDI System:
• The priority of “open economy” within the Marshall Plan 2.Green
• International initiatives within the Walloon research strategy 2011-2015
V.a) International dimension through Walloon competitiveness poles
The main objective of this policy is to develop some key growth sectors on the basis of strong
partnerships projects between enterprises, research centres and training centres.
For developing international linkages, each pole recruited a sectoral expert (AWEX – Walloon Export
and Foreign Investment Agency) with a view to developing an international promotion strategy for
the Competitiveness Pole.
Moreover, potential projects are analysed by an independant and international Jury of experts.
Regional Agency for exportation and foreign investment (AWEX)18
provides funding support for
internationalization activities of poles and clusters. Competitiveness poles and clusters participate to
RDI European programmes: FP7 (RoK), CIP (Europe INNOVA/Innovation Express) and Interreg
projects.
Wallonia is also member of the European Clusters Alliance (ECA).
V.b) Walloon research strategy (2011-2015)
Specific initiatives are dedicated to international activities (External Knowledge):
• Circulation of Ideas: 5 millions €/yearly are dedicated to support high-level research
infrastructures. It allows research teams to involve in the strategic plan of ESFRI.
• Mobility of researchers: launching “First international” tool (2011).
• Funding of 10 assignments for Walloon researchers.
• Providing them with training in emerging technologies
• Gaining an international partnership experience through a minimum 6 months
training period abroad.
V.c) International benchmarking and comparison of key indicators.
The international Walloon strategy aims participating in global value chain through value added and
knowledge intensive differentiation strategy.
The analysis of the competitive position of the Walloon RIS are based on several international
studies:
- The international indicators of the “Federal Planning Bureau”;
- Study of Henri Capron (Competitiveness Poles);
- European good practices;
- An OECD peer review study of the regional innovation system (in progress);
- A prospective study on industrial policy in Wallonia, with a value chain orientation,
managed by IDEA Consult.Ltd (in progress).
18 www.awex.be
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VI. Governance
Walloon government is the relevant regional authority responsible for regional economic
development and RD&I policies (http://gouvernement.wallonie.be/ ).
Walloon Competitiveness Poles and Clusters play an important (central) role within the regional
smart specialisation strategy (http://clusters.wallonie.be/federateur/en/index.html ).
This chart/diagram illustrates the bodies and responsabilities regarding the implementation of
Walloon innovation policies.
- Walloon Public Service of Wallonia, General Directorate for Research, Economy and
Employment is the main administration in charge of developing and implementing
innovation policies and support tools (http://economie.wallonie.be/new/ , http://recherche-
technologie.wallonie.be/?LANG=en )
- The Sowalfin is the one-stop-shop of Wallonia for financing SMEs (http://www.sowalfin.be/ )
- The Technological Stimulation Agency (AST) is coordinating the walloon network for
scientific and technological animation Stimulation Technologique (http://ast.wallonie.be/ )
- The Economic Stimulation Agency (ASE) is coordinating the walloon network for economic
animation and the regional policy for entrepreneurship (http://ase.wallonie.be/ )
- The Walloon Agency for Telecommunications (AWT) is in charge of the ICT policy of
Wallonia (http://www.awt.be/ )
- Universities and research centres are the main actors of R&D.
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VII. Measuring the progress
Under the impulse of structural funds, a strong evaluation culture has been developed in Wallonia.
Regional development strategies are monitored and evaluated, as well as specific policies.
a) Monitoring and evaluation of Marshall Plan
The Walloon Government has put in place systems for the ongo-ing monitoring and assessment
of the Marshall 2 Green Plan:
– A “special representative” is tasked with following up the plan and produces a
scoreboard and monitors the measures at regular intervals. An annual
implementation report published;
– Regular monitoring by the Government;
– Independent evaluation by Evaluation institution (IWEPS);
– Evaluation of specific policies (ex post evaluation of R&D projects, clustering
policies,...).
b) Competitiveness Poles calls for proposals: results (2006-2011)
- 7 calls for projects, 225 projects selected;
- Public budget of 432 million €;
- Expected creation of more than 10,600 jobs;
- Mostly R&D projects (144 out of 225 for an amount of 375 million €);
- Mobilisation of a large number of operators;
- Growing involvement of SME’s as calls for projects;
- 8th call for proposals is currently launched.
c) Several international peer-reviews studies (cfr the external context)
VIII. Summary and next steps
Since early 2000’s, Wallonia have been building an integrated innovation strategy closely linked to its
industrial policy and including basic principles of S3. Walloon Competitiveness Poles and clusters play
an important role in that context.
The policy framework is consistently adapted to the new challenges that the Region and its
stakeholders are faced with. The next objective of the Walloon strategy is to move from collaborative
research projects to a real commercial exploitation of the research results.
Within this context, Wallonia detected (on-going process) important (new) challenges to face and
improvements to bring (on basis of evaluation):
• Better leveraging of complementary research and innovation assets (through cross-
fertilisation, KET, internationalisation).
• Moving from collaborative research projects to a real commercial exploitation of the
research results
• To strengthen the international business activities and the international capability of SMEs:
Global Value Chains.
• To reach smaller and rather non-innovative companies and include them into strategic
action.
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• More young, innovative companies are needed to transform to support the transformation
to a greener, sustainable economy.
This Walloon reflection is constantly developed and build on recent EU orientations (Industrial and
Innovation flagship initiatives):
– OECD peer review.
– Prospective study on industrial policy and value chains.
– (Coming) : strategy for structural funds programming 2014-2020.
Wallonia highlights the importance of EU support programmes to complete and consolidate regional
tools and strategies and foster integration of regional actors in EU and global networks:
– Industrial and innovation policy tools
– Financial instruments
– Horizon 2020
– Structural Funds
– Regions of Knowledge
– Clustering policy
– ...